{"id":19372,"date":"2021-06-24T16:01:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=19372"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:13:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:13:51","slug":"aaec-lacked-experience-in-casino-sector-court-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/aaec-lacked-experience-in-casino-sector-court-hears","title":{"rendered":"AAEC lacked experience in casino sector, court hears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carlos Lobo, a former advisor to Macau\u2019s gaming commission has told Macau’s Court of First Instance that AAEC was an experienced company in the finance sector, but did not have experience in tourism or casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- On a new day of hearings at Macau\u2019s Court of First Instance,\u00a0Las Vegas Sands (LVS) called on Carlos Lobo<\/strong>, an advisor to Macau\u2019s gaming commission during its concession tender process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lobo told the court that AAEC lacked experience in the casino sector, adding that the company also wanted to develop a bank<\/strong>\u00a0in exchange for a gaming concession, which raised concerns about money laundering at the gaming commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AAEC’s legal team argued that Lobo shouldn’t have testified as he had a conflict of interest for\u00a0being a legal advisor for LVS’s Venetian<\/strong>\u00a0as well as a trainee lawyer at the firm that defended Las Vegas Sands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the court said Lobo’s testimony only focused on events that happened before he had a relationship with Las Vegas Sands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also a new debate<\/a> about whether the US casino giant was still a partner <\/strong>of AAEC when it partnered with Hong Kong\u2019s Galaxy Entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Las Vegas Sands,\u00a0its partnership with AAEC ended before\u00a0<\/strong>the Macau government announced the results of its licence tender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lobo was also asked about the letter from a Las Vegas Sands entity to the Macau Gaming Commission about the split on January 15, 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lobo confirmed that the agreement ended on January 15 and added that the split was mentioned in the gaming commission\u2019s report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also revealed during the hearings that AAEC’s lawyer, Jorge Menezes, was a co-author of the gaming commission\u2019s report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trial will resume on July 1 when Carlos Lobo will return to testify along with another former advisor to the gaming commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AAEC initiated the lawsuit in 2012, arguing that Sands breached its contract<\/a> for a casino licence in Macau in 2002<\/strong> when the US operator switched partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is seeking\u00a0damages calculated at around 70 per cent of Sands\u2019 Macau profits\u00a0<\/strong>from 2004 to 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 4 2019, AAEC was allowed to increase its initial MOP3bn claim to MOP96.45bn (US$12bn) <\/strong>for lost profits from 2004 to 2018 while reserving its right to claim for lost profits up to 2022 in due course at the enforcement stage. LVS\u2019 appeal over this decision is still pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlos Lobo, a former advisor to Macau\u2019s gaming commission has told Macau’s Court of First Instance that AAEC was an experienced company in the finance sector, but did not have experience in tourism or casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A Macau court is hearing a lawsuit where AAEC alleges Las Vegas Sands (LVS) breached a 2002 contract for a casino license, seeking US$12bn in damages. Testimony from a former gaming commission advisor highlighted AAEC's lack of casino experience and concerns over potential money laundering risks associated with their proposal to develop a bank alongside a gaming concession. The trial continues, focusing on the contractual split between LVS and AAEC prior to the concession award.","focusai_entities":"Carlos Lobo, AAEC, Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Macau\u2019s gaming commission, Venetian, Galaxy Entertainment, Jorge Menezes","focusai_location":"Macau, Hong Kong, US","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.85), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"LVS Financial Impact?","query":"What is the projected financial impact on Las Vegas Sands' balance sheet and future earnings if the MOP96.45bn claim is upheld, considering their current Macau GGR and NGR?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent?","query":"How might the court's ruling on the contractual breach and the gaming commission's due diligence in 2002 influence future B2B\/B2C licensing processes and partnership vetting in Macau and other regulated iGaming jurisdictions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,156],"tags":[23907,1642,23906],"class_list":["post-19372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-land-based-casino","tag-las-vegas-sands","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19415,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372\/revisions\/19415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}